Mary Maclean was evacuated from Glasgow to live with relatives in Skye during World War 2.

Well, one memory is that the Government and the authorities in Glasgow realised that maybe Glasgow would be used as a target for bombing because of, because of how important it was for shipbuilding, so they advised the parents to evacuate all the children, that's to send them away from the city and to go to the, and stay in the country and with, that's what happened to lots of children in Glasgow and the Glasgow Corporation arranged for places for them to stay. But we were in the position that we had so many relatives in Skye and they all sent us word and said, 'You'd better come to Skye.' So we did. I came first of all to Portree to stay with my father's mother - that was my grandmother in Portree - and my aunts. So I stayed there for nine months, and the first nine months of the war, well, nothing drastic happened in Glasgow. Things were quite quiet and I think we were getting homesick. I used to write my mother and I used to say, 'I wish we could go back to Glasgow', although it was very nice in Portree School. We got on all right but we wanted back to Glasgow and, em, so after nine months, my, another sister, she stayed behind but my other sister and my younger brother, we went back to Glasgow.

This interview was recorded as part of a War Detectives project in 2005 at Portree Primary School.

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Interview with Mary Maclean about evacuation to Skye

INVERNESS: Portree

2000s

World War 2; World War II; Second World War; 2nd World War; evacuation; evacuees; audio

Am Baile and War Detectives

War Detectives (interviews)

Mary Maclean was evacuated from Glasgow to live with relatives in Skye during World War 2.<br />
<br />
Well, one memory is that the Government and the authorities in Glasgow realised that maybe Glasgow would be used as a target for bombing because of, because of how important it was for shipbuilding, so they advised the parents to evacuate all the children, that's to send them away from the city and to go to the, and stay in the country and with, that's what happened to lots of children in Glasgow and the Glasgow Corporation arranged for places for them to stay. But we were in the position that we had so many relatives in Skye and they all sent us word and said, 'You'd better come to Skye.' So we did. I came first of all to Portree to stay with my father's mother - that was my grandmother in Portree - and my aunts. So I stayed there for nine months, and the first nine months of the war, well, nothing drastic happened in Glasgow. Things were quite quiet and I think we were getting homesick. I used to write my mother and I used to say, 'I wish we could go back to Glasgow', although it was very nice in Portree School. We got on all right but we wanted back to Glasgow and, em, so after nine months, my, another sister, she stayed behind but my other sister and my younger brother, we went back to Glasgow. <br />
<br />
This interview was recorded as part of a War Detectives project in 2005 at Portree Primary School.